By Michael Miner
So Bienen must make his mark on Northwestern. And there are two ways to do so that are certain to impress the trustees who’ll choose Shapiro’s successor. One is to raise the university’s standing academically, from a school on the fringes of America’s first rank to a school firmly nestled within it. The other is to raise millions and more millions of dollars.
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What this is supposed to mean is that no in-house candidate has a chance of succeeding Janeway, even though I’m told three Medill professors made the list of about 20 names, winnowed from a roster of 100-plus applicants and nominees. The three were professor Abe Peck, chair of the Medill magazine program, director of the National Arts Journalism Program, and a former Chicago newspaper reporter and Rolling Stone contributing editor; associate dean Jack Doppelt, an associate professor who was once an investigative reporter for the Better Government Association; and professor Lee Huebner, former publisher of the International Herald Tribune and a founder of the Ripon Society.
Though national prestige is supposedly a powerful argument for naming an outsider, another Medill professor wonders if it’s anything of the sort. “It makes sense, except–” this professor ruminated. “The counterargument says that by luring a big name here [Bienen] gets credit, but by discovering a pearl in his own backyard and having him perform really well for the next three or four years he gets extra credit for making an unobvious choice.”
This week Hot Type sets aside its hammer and tongs to mediate between irascible readers and wayward media.
Close textual analysis raised this letter above the usual lampoon of our poor suffering plutocrats. My correspondent read Bukro’s article to the last word of not one but two editions. He spotted, at the conclusion of the early version, the sentiments of Andrew McKenna, identified as CEO of Schwarz Paper Company but not as a member of the Tribune Company board. McKenna praised Rooney for his humility: “He referred to himself as a garbage man. He was not sensitive about the nature of his work.”
From WMX Bukro got a list of Rooney’s friends who’d called to commiserate. Of these, Bukro wound up speaking to the friends who returned his call. But beyond their predictable praise of Rooney lay the article’s grim subtext, which Bukro readily acknowledged.
